NGO cite MOFA staff in fertilizer smuggling, calls for forensic audit

A new study conducted by non-governmental organisation Community Development Alliance (CDA) has revealed that several state officials are involved in the smuggling of subsidized fertilizer to Burkina Faso.

Executive director of the group, Salifu Issifu Kanton told Joy News the practice would not stop until government conducts a thorough forensic audit into the programme.

He also called for stringent measures to deal with the perpetrators of the act including mounting surveillance on staff of the Food and Agriculture Ministry as well as some state officials who are said to be masterminding the act.  

“While we commend government for the bold initiative of implementing this policy, we, however, think that there are serious lapses in the implementation which is costing government to lose the taxpayers money.

“We think for us to be able to find out where the leakages are, we need an audit and that audit must be comprehensive. We want to find out at the regional levels [what were the quantities received?-; at the district level [how much did they receive and how did they distribute it?- those are the critical questions we need to address,” he said.

According to him, until that is done it will be a wasted effort of “pouring water into a basket”.

The Fertilizer Subsidy Programme launched in 2015, is aimed at enhancing food production and security.

The programme targets smallholder farmers cultivating maize, rice, sorghum and millet, with priority on food crop, and farmers registered under recognised companies as well as cotton farmers operating under recognised nucleus farmers.

The policy is part of government's efforts to boost agricultural activities to increase food production and enhance incomes of farmers.

It is part of a move to help Ghana achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Two, which focuses on hunger eradication.

However, local farmers have repeatedly complained about inaccessibility to the manure during farming seasons while local media and civil society organizations report of a “syndicate of smugglers” who smuggle it through unapproved routes into neighbouring countries.

Based on the perceptions of smuggling, CDA with support from Advance conducted a baseline study in two districts in the upper west region - Sissala West and Lambussie districts - to ascertain the truth or otherwise of the spurious allegation.

Programme officer of the Alliance, Sulemana Bipuo at a breakfast meeting in Wa attended by media practitioners laid bare the report of the baseline study which revealed widespread smuggling of the commodity into neighbouring Burkina Faso.

“It looks like fertilizer has diplomatic passport because we see it being smuggled out of the country and no one stops it,” he said.

 

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